Martin Margiela

By Suzy Menkes

Published: September 6, 1994

THE suit has the stolid style of 25 years ago. The blouse is like an old-fashioned smock. The labels are more precise: "Men's suit 1970, schoolgirl's blouse 1920, exact reproductions."

Martin Margiela, the designer whose made-over flea-market clothes put an end to the conspicuous consumption of the 1980s, is now reproducing period clothes.

"Authenticity is more and more important - instead of imitating originals, I decided to make complete reproductions," says Margiela, who shows his fall collection for the first time Wednesday.

At Charivari in New York, Joseph in London, at the four Paris boutiques and in Tokyo, women - sometimes cast from the street - will show 12 key outfits to actual and potential clients. It is a move by the 37-year-old designer to break the fashion system where a designer's ideas are often watered down by buyers and served up to the public six months after their conception.

The designer also said he felt that fashion shows for the pros had gone stale and that "the whole house wanted a new experience - we need that kind of concentration of energy, creativity and ideas."

Last season, Margiela took a stand against fashion novelty by making his collection entirely from his creations of the last seven years, maybe changing the fabric, but stating the original season on the label. A few "classics" will appear in Wednesday's show, and true to his earlier spirit of turning seams inside out, a new dress is reproduced from the lining of a 1930s dress and another group is based on male and female underwear.

The most striking idea is the wardrobe of Barbie and Ken - the famous doll duo - exactly reproduced but blown up to adult sizes. That means a double-knit sweater set or a fake leather jacket complete with hand-sewn snaps. The designer said he enjoyed the project because it was "completely abstract."

Why do all Margiela's avenues of exploration seem to lead backward to fashion's past rather than forward to its future?

He admits to a nostalgia for the anarchic 1970s that he could not join in as a child in the small Flanders town of Genk. After studying fashion in Antwerp, he came to Paris and worked for Jean-Paul Gaultier.

"Every designer looks to retro stuff," says Margiela. "If you put a blank paper in front of me, things come up and on me from my own culture.

"I think I always look forward. But it is a nicer feeling for myself to go forward by looking backwards."